November 2009 Archives

They stretch the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans out for as long as possible, with parades, balls and parties over a couple of weeks. But there's one place in New Orleans where every day is Fat Tuesday - at Blaine Kern's Mardis Gras World. A huge hangar on the banks of the Mississippi hides a magical land where the floats are made and stored. I was lucky enough to meet 'Mr Mardi Gras' himself on my visit.

We took a tour, watching the artists at work sketching the floats, sculpting and painting.

Then you can wander around the storage area, past disembodied heads, half-completed statues, and rank upon rank of finished floats, decorated with animals, fictional characters from the big and small screen and from myths and legends, celebrities, politicians and even religious figures. It feels entirely surreal and whilst not the same as experiencing Mardi Gras itself, it's a good second best if you visit outside of February.

As if that isn't enough, you also get to sample a slice of traditional king cake - which seems to basically be a large danish pastry, plentifully iced - and try on a few costumes yourself. This is me as Jay Leno, though I actually thought it was Bill Clinton at the time. A confusion that could have had far-reaching political consequences outside the protective walls of Mardi Gras World...

Love music? Love food? Come to New Orleans, where they excel at combining the two. It also helps to multi-task when time is short, so you can tick off a few Crescent City must-dos in one fell swoop.

My first tuneful gourmet experience came at the Court of Two Sisters. This historic French Quarter restaurant serves a legendary jazz brunch, where you can sit under the shade of an ancient tree - which happily survived Katrina - at a white linen table sipping a cocktail, listening to a jazz trio and tucking in to perfectly-cooked Creole dishes from the vast selection at the buffet. Try jambalya, crawfish remoulade, turtle soup, plus Southern favourites like ribs, grits, and cornbread, but leave room for the desserts. The Bananas Foster is to die for.

The restaurant is also open in the evening, for romantic dinners too. They're really flexible about requests too, so are willing to open early if someone wants the place secluded for a marriage proposal.

My second experience combining music and food was a jazz dinner cruise on the Mississippi. I jumped aboard the Natchez, a classic old paddle steamer. The lights of New Orleans glinted in the background and in the company of newfound friends - a group of teachers from a Christian Brothers Academy - I tucked into another substantial buffet.

We were ably entertained by The Dukes of Dixieland - here they are, performing the old classic 'Oh When The Saints'.

As any child who ever watched E.T. will know, they do Halloween far better in the States. We make do with a plastic pumpkin or two; they go all out with proper costumes, serious trick-or-treating and any amount of candy.

And few places in the US can take Halloween more seriously than New Orleans. Every night is party night in The Big Easy, but October 31 almost rivals Mardi Gras in terms of celebrations. The streets are thronged with people as some rather spooky floats roll by, with the riders flinging 'throws' (small gifts) into the crowd.

The bars are full to bursting, and many houses in the French Quarter host parties, decorating their balconies with cobwebs, skeletons, pumpkins and broomsticks.

And dressing up is by no means just for the kids, as these photos demonstrate....

Inspired by my ghost tour, I've decided to take a closer look at New Orleans spooky side. It's definitely a place where the dead keep coming back - sometimes, quite literally. When residents first started trying to bury their dead in the ground, the height of the water table meant they quite literally floated back up to the surface.

This obviously wouldn't do, and so began the tradition of overground burial. I went to look round the oldest remaining cemetery in the city, the St Louis Cemetery Number 1 on Rampart Street, which dates back to 1789.

The row upon row of mini-houses are fascinating to explore. Most graves will have a number of family members interred there, as a year and a day after burial the tomb can be opened and the remains bagged up and stored within the grave, leaving room for another coffin.

Our guide, Anna Ross of Historic New Orleans Tours, is a member of a group dedicated to saving these sites and knows the graves like the back of her hand. She's even campaigned to have an unused grave left for the use of musicians in New Orleans.

The cemetery has a few claims to fame. Anyone who has seen Easy Rider may recognise this statue of the Madonna, which you see Peter Fonda weeping over:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_first_rays/3852329955/

It's also home to Marie Laveau, the famous voodoo queen. Born in the 1790s Marie's reputation as a powerful voodoo priestess grew as she told fortunes, dispensed gris-gris (charms and spells) and healed the sick. Her tomb is covered in markings, as people still flock there and place three crosses on it in the hope she will grant them a wish. There are heaps of offerings, from photographs and flowers to small tokens like coins, lipstick, cigarettes and jewellery.

I couldn't come to New Orleans around Halloween and not make the most of the spooky activities on offer. Reputedly the city has more ghosts than you could rattle a ghoulish chain at, so a themed walking tour of the historic French Quarter was my best bet.

I was lucky enough to land an excellent guide - Ernie Sylvester of Haunted History Tours. A Louisiana native, he was weaned on these tales, and he's a born storyteller too, pacing the pavement, waving his arms, building the tension... until everyone is slightly wary about walking down a dark alleyway.

We ran the full gamut, with ghostly monks, serial-killer doctors, spectral soldiers and haunted hotels (luckily no one on the tour was booked into that establishment). It was also a great way to see the beautiful architecture of the Vieux Carre and learn a bit about its chequered history.